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Wallace Browne, Baron Browne of Belmont

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Browne of Belmont
Official portrait, 2022
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
24 July 2006
Life peerage
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast East
In office
7 March 2007 – 24 March 2011
Preceded byMichael Copeland
Succeeded bySammy Douglas
62nd Lord Mayor of Belfast
In office
1 June 2005 – 1 June 2006
Preceded byTom Ekin
Succeeded byPatrick McCarthy
Member of
Belfast City Council
In office
15 May 1985 – 2010
Preceded byDistrict created
Succeeded byJohn Hussey
ConstituencyVictoria
Personal details
Born (1947-10-29) 29 October 1947 (age 77)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
NationalityBritish
Political partyDemocratic Unionist Party
Alma materQueen's University Belfast

Wallace Hamilton Browne, Baron Browne of Belmont (born 29 October 1947), is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician, who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2006, and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 2007 to 2011.

Political career

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Browne, a long-serving member of the DUP Central Executive; was a member of Belfast City Council for the Victoria electoral area from 1985 until 2010.

During his time on Belfast City Council, Browne was High Sheriff of the City in 2002 and Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2005–06.

In 2007, Browne was elected in the Assembly elections for the East Belfast seat. He remained a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2011. During his time in the Assembly, he represented his party on various committees, including the Justice Committee, Culture and Arts Committee and the Audit Committee. Browne also served as chairman of the Assembly Procedures Committee.

Since 2006, he has served in the House of Lords. He was one of the first three members of the DUP to be introduced to the second chamber as a life peer, giving the party its first-ever representation in the House of Lords. The other two being Maurice Morrow, the chairman of the DUP, and Eileen Paisley, the wife of the late Leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley; all became "working" life peers.[1] Browne was raised to the peerage as Baron Browne of Belmont, of Belmont in County Antrim on 12 June 2006.[2]

Browne has been an active working peer during his time in the House of Lords, regularly contributing to debates on a range of issues including: Restoration of the Devolved Institutions in Northern Ireland,[3] Armed Forces Veterans, Military [4] Brexit,[5] Historical Abuse and Gambling. In 2017, Browne secured the first focused debate in the House of Lords on the issue of online gambling.[6][7][8][9] [10][11]

Damage to Belfast City Hall portrait

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On 19 October 2024, Browne's portrait in Belfast City Hall was removed from a wall and the glass in its frame smashed during an event to celebrate an Irish language group’s 20th anniversary. A Sinn Féin Assembly employee resigned after admitting involvement in the incident.[12] It subsequently came to light that the individual is the son of a sitting Sinn Féin MLA.[13]

In a statement, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said:[12]

“Today, 21 October, a Sinn Féin employee, who works in the assembly, made the party chief whip aware of their involvement in an incident regarding a portrait in Belfast City Hall which took place on Saturday 19 October. The employee was immediately suspended, and we have notified the PSNI today. The employee has now resigned from their employment and their party membership.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is treating damage caused to the portrait as a hate crime. It was painted by artist Zohar Arnon, who grew up in Israel.[14] In a social media post, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said: “We don’t know if the motivation was sectarian bigotry, antisemitism, wanton destruction or a heady mix of the three … but [it’s] a disgrace.”[15] Belfast City Council said it was "assessing the extent of the damage and looking into the circumstances".[16]

Personal life

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Before he was elected as a member of the NI Assembly in 2007, Browne was previously a grammar school teacher. Browne was also a long-serving trustee of the Somme Association. Browne, a former pupil of Campbell College, Belfast is a graduate of Queen's University, Belfast graduating in 1970 with a degree in zoology[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Search for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Browne of Belmont". TheyWorkForYou.
  2. ^ "London Gazette article". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Tweet". twitter.com. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  4. ^ "Northern Ireland: Legacy of the Troubles - Question for Short Debate". TheyWorkForYou.
  5. ^ "Brexit: Dublin needs to recognise who its real friends are, says Trimble". Belfasttelegraph – via www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
  6. ^ Brown, Thomas (7 September 2021). "Online Gambling: Problem Gamblers and the Multi-Operator Self Exclusion Scheme" – via lordslibrary.parliament.uk. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ [1][dead link]
  8. ^ "Online Gambling - Motion to Take Note". TheyWorkForYou.
  9. ^ "Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019: Section 3(5) - Tuesday 7 January 2020 - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk.
  10. ^ "Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Bill [HL] - Monday 28 October 2019 - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk.
  11. ^ "Brexit: Negotiations - Tuesday 20 November 2018 - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk.
  12. ^ a b O'Carroll, Lisa (21 October 2024). "Sinn Féin staffer resigns after painting in Belfast City Hall 'removed and damaged'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  13. ^ "Damage to portrait of former Belfast Lord Mayor being treated as hate crime". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 28 October 2024. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  14. ^ "Damage to portrait of former Belfast Lord Mayor being treated as hate crime". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 28 October 2024. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  15. ^ O'Carroll, Lisa (21 October 2024). "Sinn Féin staffer resigns after painting in Belfast City Hall 'removed and damaged'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  16. ^ "Sinn Féin employee resigns after damage to DUP portrait". BBC News. 21 October 2024. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  17. ^ "Wallace Browne MLA". 2 March 2009.
[edit]
Civic offices
Preceded by
Alan Crowe
 High Sheriff of Belfast
2002–2003 		Succeeded by
Margaret Clarke
Preceded by Lord Mayor of Belfast
2005–06 		Succeeded by
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by MLA for Belfast East
2007–2011 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Browne of Belmont 		Followed by
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